My first reading of The Faerie Queene convinced me, impressionistically, that Books I-VI are a complete poem and that the part of the Letter to Raleigh implying that Spenser's great poem is but half what it should be is' fallacious evidence. The following study, consequently, is the result of an attempt to find out if there is any scholarly basis for my impression. I believe there is, and I try to present as many kinds of evidence from as many perspectives as possible within the limits of reasonable size.